Gender does not Trump what is right

On. Jan 19, President Trump a signed six-year renewal for Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The new authorization, which some congressmembers claimed carried privacy safeguards for U.S. citizens, actually expands the warrantless surveillance powers of the National Security Agency and the FBI.

Section 702 gives the feds the power to listen in on foreign nationals. The NSA gobbles up meta data and can record calls in entire countries for up to 30 days. Civil libertarians object that it allows the FBI to obtain information on American citizens without a warrant.

The Fourth Amendment states that the government must get a warrant to spy on people in the U.S, naming the particular place and items to be searched. This was to prevent the “general warrants” used to authorized blanket searches by British troops.

The fly in the web that raises concerns is a U.S. citizen who is involved in a conversation with a foreign target. Then the conversation can be retained, but the American must be “masked.” Any data on a U.S. citizen can only be accessed after obtaining a warrant. Republicans claim senior Obama officials abused their authority to unmask former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn for political purposes.

Nevertheless, the majority of Republican congressfolk were content to vote for 702, because the Constitution, after all, is not a suicide pact. Or something. Their support for warrantless spying on Americans preserved the power of the Deep State to continue to spy for political “opposition research.”

Section 702 has also been used by federal law enforcement to provide evidence obtained without a warrant to state-level law enforcement, who then pretend they obtained the evidence on their own. This is called “parallel construction” and is an end run past the Fourth Amendment warrant requirements. The new 702 authorization codifies this practice as legal.

The 702 reauthorization passed overwhelmingly in the House, but there the battle was over an amendment by Michigan Representative Justin Amash and the House Freedom Caucus, with some Democratic support, to require a warrant before spying on Americans.

Amash’s amendment came close, but was killed largely by the opposition of the #TheResistance and #MeToo female Democratic senators who have spent the last year denouncing President Trump as Putin’s Puppet and extremely boorish. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi was instrumental in forming the opposition to Amash’s Amendment. Republicans who voted against the amendment voted along with former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who is personally tied to the Fusion GPS Dossier that alleged Putin gave Trump prostitutes in Moscow. U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen of Nevada also voted no to the Fourth Amendment. She is a reliable Nevada neocon.

The issue in the Senate was a promised filibuster to stop 702 by Freedom Caucus Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Oregon civil liberties Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden. A cloture vote requiring a 60-vote supermajority was introduced to stop the filibuster. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Military-Industrial Complex) gave an impassioned speech about the need for warrants, but then voted for cloture. Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill actually cast the deciding 60th vote. Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto voted for cloture as well. Then the 702 bill itself passed 65-34, without meaningful debate.

Democrats, especially #TheResistance Democratic women, helped Republicans vote to give Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Trump more power. White male GOP Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, part of the Patriarchy, voted to allow debate. That is why I believe it is not what is between your legs, but rather what’s between your ears, that counts.